Series: Orbis Biblicus Et Orientalis, 273

The corpus of penitential prayers to the personal god that bear the
signature KA-inim-ma digir a-dab(5)-ba gur-ru-da-kam -Incantation
to return the 'tied heart' of the god- gives us an overview of how
the inhabitants of Mesopotamia represented to themselves what we
would call -private piety-. Focusing on this corpus, this book
includes texts from the genre's origin in Old Babylonian private
devotion up to its use in official Assyrian kings' rituals. The Old
Babylonian corpus consists of about 10 tablets in Sumerian that
were excavated in various Mesopotamian cities. These tablets
include only one prayer, addressed to the personal god. This prayer
gives an idea of the wealth of metaphors used to talk about guilt,
shame or sorrow. Identical metaphors appear in other similar
literary texts and letters. The texts of the Assyrian corpus are
either bilinguals (Akkadian and Sumerian) or purely Akkadian. Most
of them were discovered in Assurbanipal's library in Niniveh. The
Akkadian texts consist of a corpus of prayers in which the Old
Babylonian prayer is the fifth one. This prayer derived directly
from the ancient Sumerian digir a-dab(5)-ba and was incorporated
into official royal rituals, where it took on the character of an
-incantation-prayer-. The other prayers of the corpus are found in
different rituals like Bit rimki, urpu, ama-um-ukin Dream Rituals,
and therapeutic texts of the SA.GIG series, magical texts and omen
texts. The prayers were first published in 1974, but without the
rituals. However, prayers and rituals should be analysed both
individually and as a whole, while considering their connections
and differences. The corpus of Hittite prayers to the Sun God from
13th century Anatolia, embodies isolated clauses borrowed from the
Sumerian digir a-dab(5)-ba. The research published here considers
the migration of these sentences from the Sumerian corpus to the
Hittite texts, and analyses their use and interpretations in the
new context. The Hittite texts are published by Daniel Schwemer in
a separate chapter. The whole corpus is important for religious
studies. First, it provides insight into private devotion in
Mesopotamia, still a very little known topic. Second, the problem
of evil is treated, its causes and its deflection or palliation.
Naturally, evil is a source of emotions and the way these emotions
are expressed in prayers has to be considered in comparison with
other kinds of expressions in Mesopotamian culture. Finally, the
way a text changes while traveling from one place to another and
from one period to another has to be analysed. Study of this corpus
illustrates how both historical and synthetic analyses can interact
and support each other in order to enhance our understanding of
religion in the ancient Near East.